At the time, the Open Division seemed like a great idea. And it still makes sense to bring the top football teams in the Central Coast Section into one playoff division to determine a true champion.

Over the past two years, however, the support has begun to erode, primarily because public schools don’t feel like they have an equal chance to succeed against the private schools. The division has become comprised of the few private schools who want to be there against a bunch of public schools who don’t, but were unfortunate enough to have enough seeding points to be dragged into the field. Continue Reading →

The challenge here was what to do with Los Gatos. How much of its performance was due to the absence of Coach Butch Cattolico, both from a play-calling perspective and a sense of direction, and how much to St. Francis’ inspired play?

Los Gatos dropped from No. 3 to No. 7, and Valley Christian from second to fourth after a big loss to a tough Grant team. The biggest movers were Oak Grove and St. Francis. Continue Reading →

The top four teams remained the same _ San Benito looked especially good last week with wins over Carlmont, Sacred Heart Prep, Harker and Menlo School. The Haybalers went undefeated in the six team Menlo Tournament. Continue Reading →

Of the 90 Central Coast Section schools that play football, 23 have perfect records after Week Two. Those include a few that might be surprising, teams like Lynbrook and Menlo-Atherton. And a few that aren’t so surprising, but offer a contrast to last season.

Lynbrook (2-0) has exceeded its record for the past two seasons combined (one). M-A (2-0) was 1-9 last season. Continue Reading →

Palo Alto quarterback Nick Goodspeed was playing well in his first season as a varsity quarterback, throwing for more than 1,500 yards with 14 touchdowns through eight games when his junior season came to an abrupt halt because of a dislocated right (throwing)shoulder.

Goodspeed missed the basketball season recovering, but was back for baseball, where he plays catcher and shortstop for the Vikings.